Late binding of tab image context to ordered tab stock

ABSTRACT

To allow for the flexibility of printing the tab contents on any one of the tab pages of an ordered tab set, a flag or marker indicating that a page contains a tab plus the information that needs to be rendered on the tab inside the PDF page is stored in memory. This enables the user to move this page around in the document or even copy it to a different document without losing this information. Once the document containing such pages is to be printed, a print output module goes through the PDF document and produces the tabs in the correct locations on the tab pages.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of prior U.S. patent application Ser.No. 09/754,562, filed Jan. 4, 2001, in the names of Karl Heinz Kremer etal., and entitled LATE BINDING OF TAB IMAGE CONTENTS TO ORDER TAB STOCK,which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No.09/572,420, entitled “Flexible Job Delivery for Job Preparation,” filedon May 17, 2000. The disclosures of the documents cited in thisparagraph are hereby incorporated herein by reference in theirentireties.

BACKGROUND

While just about every computer user owns their own printer and iscapable of producing high quality documents, the ability to produce suchdocuments in high volume and with special finishing features, such asbinding, is still within the purview of the commercial print shops andcorporate copy departments. High volume, finished production ofdocuments is typically referred to as production printing. A productionprinter is a printing device capable of rapid production of largevolumes of documents. Typically these printers have high paper handlingcapacity, the ability to draw on multiple media types from multiplesources and the ability to automatically finish a document such as byadding a binding. Despite the automation provided by the productionprinter and the proliferation of computer technology, especially in thearea of desktop publishing, production printing is still a complicatedand often manual process.

In a typical print shop, customers bring in original documents whichthey want turned into a finished product such as a bound booklet, atri-fold brochure or a tabbed three ring bound notebook. In addition,they typically need a large volume of the finished product, for example,one thousand brochures. The combination of the original documents plusthe instructions for producing the finished product is called a “job”.The documents can be brought in either in hard copy or electronic form,such as on floppy disk, compact disc or tape or can be transmitted tothe print shop over a network such as the Internet.

After handing over the documents to the clerk, the customer relays hisinstructions for preparing the finished product. The clerk will notethese instructions on a “ticket” or “job ticket”. The job ticket istypically a piece of paper with all of the instructions written on itfor producing the finished product. As mentioned above, this is known asjob. The job will then be handed to an operator, who runs the productionprinter, to produce the finished output. The operator's job is toprepare the document for production, load the appropriate materials,such as paper stock and binding materials, into the production printerand ensure that the finished output is correct.

While the job of the operator seems simple, there are many issues whichquickly complicate it. Often, the documents provided by a customer arenot ready to be run on the production printer. Some documents providedby a customer are merely raw manuscripts requiring basic formatting,such as margins, typography, etc. Other documents may be formatted butsuch formatting might not take into account the requested binding. Forexample, the text of the document is too close to the margin, therefore,when the finished product is bound, some of the text will be obscured.Some documents, such as books, require special care so that, forexample, the first page of every chapter appears on the front of a page,also known as imposition. Other forms of imposition includebooklet/pamphlet imposition or n-up imposition. Or the customer maybring in multiple documents and ask that these “chapters” be assembledinto a book, with a cover and binding.

Other issues which complicate the production printing job aredetermining and loading the correct media into the production printer.Often, jobs will require many different paper types, such as differentstock weights or different colors. In addition, some jobs require theinsertion of tab stock at specific points within the document. Stillother jobs may require the adding of a bates number or other annotationto the document.

There are many desktop applications that can create documents forprinting purposes. However, in some instances, there is also a need togroup multiple of these documents, chapters of a single document orcombinations of both that are separated by tab sheets for the sameprinting purposes. These tab sheets often need to be labeled as toreflect the specific subsections defined by the documents or chapter ofdocuments. Often the same desktop application that created thesubsection is not capable of creating the tab sheet with its labelingfor various reasons (e.g. can't handle the different paper size for thetab sheet).

In a commercial printing environment the subsections are usuallydelivered to the print shop without tab sheets and/or tab labeling. Itis the expectation of both the customer or document creator and theprinter that the printer provide the capability to create the tabs andprovide a printed document that includes the tabs (with labels) alongwith the subsections.

In order to print on tabs, the specific tabs need to be created in aseparate document and drag and drop them into the appropriate locationin the final document. This can be done with the standard configurationof the ImageSmart™. Document Mastering Workstation available fromHeidelberg Digital L.L.C., located in Rochester, N.Y., and does not needany special handling of tab pages (besides the fact that the printoutput module needs to specify the correct paper exceptions for thesepages). This can also be done with applications like Microsoft Word®.

In an environment where documents are assembled from pre-created parts,this will cause problems: A customer wants to create user's manuals formachines that is made to order. To accomplish this the documentationdepartment will receive a pick list from manufacturing containing thelist of document elements that will make up the complete set ofdocumentation. An example for this would be one customer who orders aDigimaster 9110 available from Heidelberg Digital L.L.C. with just thefinisher. This customer would receive only the print engine manual plusthe finisher manual. A second customer orders the stacker and thebooklet maker in addition to the standard configuration. This customerwould therefore receive the documentation for these two parts as well asthe basic documentation. Every section of the documentation has aprinted tab to make it easier to find in the binder. The tabs containthe name of the sub system that is described in the following chapter.Depending on the number of chapters in the folder the different chapterpages will be printed on different pages of an ordered media set. Thetabs need to be aligned with the “order” of the tabs.

In order for the printer to create the printed document with appropriatetabs, the printer needs to take several other variables into account.There are standard tab sheets that come in an “ordered set”. Typically,tab sets are provided in orders of 3, 5, and 7. Additionally, custom tabsets are also available.

When tabs are required for a job, the printer needs to align the numberof subsections needing tabs with one of these ordered tab sets, thencreate the tabs and include this in the printing process. Since, asdiscussed above, there are multiple ordered tab sets available and thedocument creator usually does not dictate which ordered set to use (thisis usually a “service of the printer”), the printer needs to align thetabs to an order. The printer then fixes the order and creates thespecific tab sheets into the document before printing. These tab sheetsthen become part of the document. The positioning of the tab labels isset since this is based on the tab order.

However, any change of the tab order or tab label alignment necessitatesthe printer going back and re-working the tab pages in the document.This can be very time consuming for the printer, cutting into hisprofits for the print job.

It is therefore desirable to have an apparatus and a method for bindingthe tab information to the ordered tab sheets without having to identifythe tab order until just before printing the document. This binding mustalso be easy and quick, as if just setting another parameter of theprint setup.

SUMMARY

The present invention is defined by the following claims, and nothing inthis section should be taken as a limitation on those claims.

To allow for the flexibility of printing the tab contents on any one ofthe tab pages of an ordered tab set, a flag or marker that indicatesthat a page contains a tab plus the information that needs to berendered on the tab inside the page is stored in memory. This enablesthe user to move this page around in the document or even copy it to adifferent document without losing this information. Once the documentcontaining such pages is to be printed, a print output module goesthrough the document and produces the tabs in the correct locations onthe tab pages.

In a preferred embodiment, private PDF page objects are used to storethis information on a page level. This makes it possible to move thepage in one document or copy it to other documents without having tokeep track of which pages are printed on tabs.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 depicts a flow diagram illustrating a preferred productionprinting workflow.

FIG. 2 depicts a flow diagram showing the user functionality workflow ofthe preferred embodiment

FIG. 3 depicts a representation of a graphic user interface displayaccording to the preferred embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENTLY PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

In order to have a better appreciation of the present invention, adiscussion of the production flow in a production print shop is providedhere. Referring now to FIG. 1, there is shown a flow diagramillustrating the production workflow 100 in a typical production printshop such as a commercial high volume copy or print shop. A workflow isdefined as the tasks, procedural steps, organizations or peopleinvolved, required input and output information, and tools needed foreach step in a business process. As will be discussed below, a workflowapproach to analyzing and managing a business or process such asproduction printing can be combined with an object oriented approach,which tends to focus on the discrete objects and processes involved suchas documents, pages, data and databases. For the purposes of thisdisclosure, the term “object oriented”, when applied to the disclosedembodiments, does not imply that an object oriented programming approachis the only method of implementation of the disclosed embodiments.

FIG. 1 further depicts a typical computer network 112 for use in a printshop. In a typical digital print shop, there will be a network 112 ofcomputer workstations 114, 116, servers 118, 120 and high volume outputdevices 122 which make up the computer network 112. The servers 118, 120include network servers 118 and print servers 120. The topology of thenetwork 112 is typically structured so as to align with the workflow 100of the print shop. The network 112 may be implemented as a wired orwireless Ethernet network or other form or local area network. Further,the network 112 may include wired or wireless connections to wide areanetworks such as the Internet and connections to other local areanetworks such as through a virtual private network.

The production workflow 100 includes the procedural stages of joborigination 102, job submission 104, job preparation 106, printproduction 108 and final fulfillment 110. Alternatively, one or more ofthese procedural stages may be combined as well as there may be otheradditional procedural stages. Job origination 102 is the proceduralstage of receiving the documents and instructions, which together aredefined as a “job”, from the customer. Job origination 102 can occurwhen a customer physically brings his job, whether in hard copy orelectronic form, to the print shop or otherwise transmits the job to theprint shop, whether by phone, fax, postal mail, electronic mail or overa local area or wide area network such as over the Internet. Note that ajob may contain more than one document and more than one set ofinstructions. For example, ajob may contain many documents, each beingone chapter of a book, along with a document containing a cover for thebook. This exemplary job may include the instructions for producing thebody of the book from the individual chapter documents and another setof instructions for producing the cover. In addition, as will bediscussed below, there may be a third set of instructions for assemblingthe cover to the body of the book.

Job submission 104 is the receipt of the job by the print shop and theentering of the job into the print shops production system or workflow.Typically the instructions from the customer will be written down on aspecial form, known as a “ticket” or “job ticket”. A ticket may also beelectronically created and maintained. Furthermore, pre-defined ticketsmay be available for standardized instructions. For example, the shopmay have a pad of pre-printed tickets with the instructions to duplicatethe documents, three-hole punch the final output and assemble thepunched final output in a three ring binder. If this is a common requestby customers, such pre-printed tickets can save time and resources. Allthe order taking clerk need do is fill in any customer specific detailssuch as the number of copies to produce. Pre-defined tickets may help tostandardize operations and prevent errors in the transcription ofinstructions from the customer. In very simple print shops, jobsubmission 104 may simply be the receiving of the original documents andinstructions along with the creation of a ticket, placing the job in apaper folder and setting it in a physical queue for later handling insubsequent procedural stages.

In print shops which handle jobs electronically, job submission 104requires entering the job into the shops electronic production system.For documents which are brought in by the customer as hard copy, thedocuments must first be scanned electronically into the shop's computersystem. For documents delivered in electronic form, the document datafiles must be loaded on the shop's computer system.

For the job submission stage 104, the computer network 112 will includeone or more “store front” workstations 114. The store front workstations114 are computer systems placed at the order taking desk, at a mannedclerk's station or set out for customer self service use. Theseworkstations 114 are used for the job submission stage 104 and typicallywill be configured to handle many different electronic media types suchas floppy disk, compact disc, tape, etc. These stations 114 may also beconfigured to receive jobs over the Internet or other form of networkconnection with customers. Further, these workstations 114 are typicallyconfigured to read many different electronic file formats such as thoseused by the Microsoft Office™ family of products manufactured byMicrosoft Corporation, located in Redmond, Wash. or various otherdesktop publishing program file formats such as Aldus Pagemaker™ orQuark Express™. In addition, these stations 114 can also read “ready forprinter” file formats, which will be discussed later, such as PortableDocument Format™ (“PDF”), Postscript™ (“PS”) or printer control language(“PCL”). Job preparation stations 114 can also accept image formats suchas Tagged Image File Format (“TIFF”), bitmap (“BMP”) and PCX. Thesestations 114 may also include a scanner 116 for scanning hard copies ofdocuments into the computer system. Scanners typically are complicateddevices to operate and some print shops may prefer to locate thescanners in the job preparation stage 106 for use solely by trainedpersonnel as will be discussed below. In addition, the store frontcomputers 114 also provide the ability to generate a ticket,electronically or in hard copy form, for the job containing all of theinstructions for completing the production printing task. This processof generating the ticket may be automated, involving pre-definedtickets, manual or a combination thereof, and is discussed in moredetail below.

Job preparation 106 involves preparing the documents for printingaccording to the instructions in the ticket. For documents that aresubmitted in hard copy form, job preparation 106 may include scanningthe documents and creating a faithful and error free electronicreproduction. The documents, once in electronic form, must also bedistilled down or converted into a common file format that the printshop can use to both edit and print the documents. This alleviates theneed for operators to deal with multiple different programs andeliminates the need to assemble complex documents together for printingusing different electronic file formats.

For example, a customer may bring in two different documents, one beingthe body of a book and the other being the photographs to be inserted atspecific pages. The customer may then instruct that the photographs beinserted at particular pages and that the final assembly has continuouspage numbers added. The body of the book may be in Microsoft Word™format while the images of the photographs are in Adobe Photoshop™format. While the operator could FIG. out at which pages the images willbe inserted and appropriately number the pages of the book andphotographs using each individual software package, this is a verycomplex and time-consuming process. It also requires that the operatorbe trained and familiar with a range of software packages and runs therisk that he will not be familiar with the particular package that thecustomer used. Therefore, it is more efficient to distill each of thevarious file formats into a unified format which allows the operator toprepare the job using a single software interface. In the preferredembodiments, all documents, whether provided in hard copy orelectronically, are distilled or converted into a “ready for printer” or“print ready” file format. In the preferred embodiments, the PortableDocument Format™ is used as the ready for printer format, developed byAdobe Systems, Inc., located in San Jose, Calif.

A ready for printer file format is defined as a file format whichcontains both the data to be printed along with printer controlinstructions that can be directly interpreted by the internal processingengine of a printer or other form of hard copy output device in order torasterize the data image onto the output media. Rasterization is theplacement of image data at a specific location on the output media. Suchfile formats include Portable Document Format™ (“PDF”) and Postscript™(“PS”) both manufactured by Adobe Systems, Inc., located in San Jose,Calif., as well as printer control language (“PCL”), manufactured byHewlett Packard, located in Palo Alto, Calif. Examples of non-ready forprinter formats include the native application file formats for personalcomputer application programs such as Microsoft Word™. These fileformats must be first converted to a ready for printer file formatbefore they can be printed. Furthermore, some image file formats, suchas the Tagged Image File Format (“TIFF”) contain bit image data onlywhich is already in a format which specifies its output location on theoutput media and does not contain printer control instructions forinterpretation by the internal processing engine of the printer andtherefore, for the purposes of this disclosure, is not a ready forprinter file format. By using a ready for printer format, rasterizationof the image data can be delayed as close as possible to the finalplacement of the image data on the output media. This allows the mostefficient use of the production print device 122 by allowing itsinternal control logic to optimize the rasterization process resultingin output that is more likely to match with the operator's expectations.

For the job preparation stage 106, the computer network 106 includes jobpreparation stations 116 and network servers 118 coupled with thestorefront workstations 114 over the network 112. Herein, the phrase“coupled with” is defined to mean directly connected to or indirectlyconnected with through one or more intermediate components. Suchintermediate components may include both hardware and software basedcomponents. The job preparation stations 116 preferably execute workflowmanagement software, described in more detail below, which allows theoperator to manage, edit and print jobs. The network server(s) 118includes a document library which allows manipulation, management,storage and archiving of jobs, or just there respective documents and/ortickets, as well as facilitates and manages the flow of jobs from thestore front computers 114 to the job preparation stations 116 and fromthe job preparation stations 116 to the print servers 120 or theproduction output devices 122. Exemplary document libraries includeIntra.DOc™ document management system manufactured by IntranetSolutions, Inc., located in Eden Prairie, Minn. and the DOCFusiondocument management system manufactured by Hummingbird, Inc., located inYork, Ontario, Canada. In the preferred embodiment, the job preparationstations 116 are Imagesmart™ Workstations, manufactured by HeidelbergDigital, L.L.C., located in Rochester, N.Y. Alternatively, anappropriate computer hardware platform such as that comprising aPentium™ class processor or better, manufactured by Intel Corporation,located in Santa Clara, Calif., 64 megabytes of RAM or more, a 20gigabyte hard disk or larger and appropriate display device may be used.Further, in the preferred embodiment, the network servers 118 preferablycomply with the Open Document Management Architecture (“ODMA”) standardand provide document management capabilities and scaleable storage.

The job preparation workstations 116 also provide the capability of theprint shop to add value to the print production process by offeringservices to the customer. Such services include the ability to modifydocuments provided by the customer to add features that the customercould not or would not add himself. Such features include adding pagenumbers across multiple documents, bates numbering, adjusting pagelayout for tab stock and aligning the output to account for binding.Further, the job preparation stations 114 provide the capability to fixerrors in the documents such as removing artifacts in scanned images andmasking over unwanted text or markings. The job preparation stations 114can also be used to prevent inaccuracies in the finished output causedby the printing or binding process. Such inaccuracies include binder'screep which happens after a document is imposed into a booklet/pamphletusing a signature imposition. Binder's creep occurs when the placementof the images on the paper fails to account for the thickness of thebinding as a function of the number of pages in the book causing theimage on the pages to shift inward as you get closer to the cover.Binder's creep is prevented by shifting image slightly when performingthe signature imposition on the document. In addition, the jobpreparation station 116 allows the operator to manage and layout thedocument pages for final output, also known as “imposition” and“signature imposition”. In addition, the operator can shuffle pages,reverse pages, insert blank pages, trim and shift pages, create bleedsand place multiple pages on a sheet, also known as “n-up” to createproof sets, brochures or pamphlets, etc. Further, the job preparationstation 116 permits the operator to add annotations to the document suchas bates numbers, page numbers, logos and watermarks. All of theseservice add value to the final output. Formatting and othermodifications to the document can be globally applied to the entiredocument, such as a shifted margin or may be applied only to selectpages. Such alterations to the document are known as document/pagefeatures or attributes. Further, these alterations are also known asdocument or page exceptions since they typically override specificinstances of the original document formatting as set by the customer.

The next stage in the print production workflow 100 is the printproduction stage 108. In the print production stage 108, the final formof the documents for printing is sent to a print server 120 which willdistribute the job to the final output device 122. In manual printshops, this stage 108 would be similar to an operator manually takingthe ready for production job over to the desired output device 122 tostart the job. The print production stage 108 manages the outputresources of the print shop. Such management includes queuing jobs tothe proper devices 122 in the shop, routing jobs to available devices122, balancing the load placed on the various devices 122, andpre-processing jobs, such as splitting or RIP'ing the job, prior tosending it to a particular device 122. RIP stands for Raster ImageProcessor and is the hardware and/or software which converts ready forprinter data into raster images. It is also a common term forrasterizing a page image on to the output media.

The print server 120 used in the print production stage 108 is coupledwith the job preparation stations 116 and the network server 118 overthe network 112. Further, the print server 120 is coupled with thevarious output devices 122 in the print shop. Note that some outputdevices 122 may not support electronic transfer of the data to be outputand may require a manual step for operation. Such devices may include aspecial binding machine which requires that the partially finisheddocuments be manually transferred to the binding machine to complete theproduction. The print server 120 is preferably implemented as a separatecomputer coupled with the network 112, however, software based printservers running on a network server 118, job preparation station 116 orstore front workstation 114 may also be used. In the preferredembodiment, the printer server 120 includes an independent computerworkstation, typically running a UNIX or Windows NT operating system, asoftware print server engine and a software print server application.The print server application offers the user interface ability toconfigure and manage the print server operation. The print server engineperforms the automated processes of the print server. These processesinclude spooling and queuing jobs and job content (i.e. the document),directing the jobs to specific production output devices based on theattributes of the print job and how these attributes are satisfied bythe print engine, load balancing jobs among the various productionoutput devices to keep all printers fully utilized, e.g. to split colorfrom black and white jobs, and acting as a communication gateway whereit can accept multiple input communication and print protocolstranslating them to the communication and print protocol the productionoutput device 122 understands.

The final stage of the production printing workflow 100 is the finalfulfillment stage 110. The final fulfillment stage 110 is the stagewhere the finished output is produced on the production output device122. A production output device is a computer output device, such as aprinter, designed for high volume production of printed documents. Suchdevices preferably include the ability to produce large quantities ofdocuments with mixed media types and various degrees of finishing, suchas stapling or binding, at very high speed. Exemplary output devicesinclude the Digimaster™ Digital High Volume Printer manufactured byHeidelberg Digital, L.L.C., located in Rochester, N.Y. and the NexPress™Color printer manufactured by NexPress, Corporation, located inRochester, N.Y.

Referring now to FIG. 2, there is shown a flow diagram showing the userfunctionality workflow 200 of the preferred embodiment job submissionand preparation stages 104, 106. The user workflow 200 includes an inputsource stage 202, a preflight stage 204 and a production stage 206. Inthe input source stage 202, all of the documents of the job arecollected together from the different input sources 208. As detailedabove, all of the collected documents are converted to a ready forprinter format, preferably a Portable Document Format™. This conversioncan be a manual or automated process or a combination thereof Forexample, a special directory can be created on the network server 118where data files in various file formats can be placed, for example, bythe clerk who accepts the documents from the customer and inputs theminto the store front workstation 114. Automated logic which watches thisdirectory, will see the placement of files and automatically convertthem (or flag them for manual conversion) into a ready for printerformat. Any documents which the automated logic cannot handle can beflagged for manual conversion. The converted documents are then passedto preflight stage 204 where they are prepared for production. Thistransfer of converted documents can occur by moving the documents to aspecial directory on the network server 118 where they can be accessedby the job preparation stations 116 or by transmitting the documents tothe job preparation station 116. This process can be manual or automatedand may involve placing the documents in a queue of documents waiting tobe prepared for production. Further, this process may include a manualor automated determination of the capabilities, skill level or traininglevel of the various operators currently logged into the available jobpreparation stations 116 as well as the current load/backlog of job intheir respective queues. Taking these factors into account, job can beautomatically or manually routed to the operator best able to handle thejob both technically and in an expedient manner. This functionality canbe implemented by creating an operator database which tracks thecapabilities, skill level and training level of the various operatorswho work in the print shop. This database can be coupled with queuemanagement software which balances the loads/backlogs of job at eachstation 116.

In the preflight stage 204, the documents can be assembled, such as in abook, annotated, edited, and have imposition or other page featuresapplied. Once the documents are prepared for production, they are passedto the production stage 206. In the production stage 206, the prepareddocuments along with the production instructions (from the tickets) aresubmitted to the print server or directly to the production outputdevice 122 using a file downloader such as the Print File Downloader™application program manufactured by Heidelberg Digital, L.L.C., locatedin Rochester, N.Y. This user functionality workflow 116 may beimplemented as a combination of hardware, software and manually executedcomponents and may involve one or more of the components detailed in theproduction printing workflow above.

In the preferred embodiments, the user functionality workflow ispreferably implemented as a workflow management software program andinterface executing on the job preparation workstation 116. Thepreferred workflow management software is visually oriented using anobject oriented graphic user interface (“GUI”) approach which integratescontrol of the workflow functionality in a single interface. While thevisual and operational appearance of the management software is objectoriented, the implementation of the software may be by an objectoriented programming language or a non-object oriented programminglanguage as are known in the art.

In the GUI interface, documents, tickets and other entities andoperations (collectively “objects”) are visually represented on theworkstation 116 display, such as with icons, tree structures andpull-down menus, and may be interacted with using known devices andmethods such as utilizing a mouse or track ball to control a visuallyrepresented pointing device which is then used to click, select, dragand drop the displayed representations. Such manipulation of the visualrepresentations results in manipulation of the underlying objects(documents, tickets, and other entities and operations). Furthermore,the GUI also permits creation and manipulation of relationships andassociations among the various objects and visually displays suchrelationships and associations. Relationships and associations may bedisplayed, for example, using a hierarchical approach like a treestructure or file folder structure or using some alternate form ofvisual indication. It will be appreciated that graphic user interfacesare well known in the art and that there are many software developmentpackages available which can be used to develop a GUI. One such packageis the Open Software Development Kit available from MicrosoftCorporation, located in Redmond, Wash.

Further, the preferred GUI utilizes a document centric approachproviding a centralized viewing window for viewing documents beingworked on. In the preferred embodiment, the document viewingfunctionality is provided by the Adobe Acrobat software program,manufactured by Adobe Systems, Inc., located in San Jose, Calif.

As was noted above, the workflow management software integratesapplications which implement, control or manage the stages of theproduction printing workflow 100. These applications include inputtingdocuments from various sources, document assembly including the creationand manipulation of books, document editing, document annotation,document library access on the network server 118, setting andmanipulation of page features, creation and manipulation of job ticketsand printing.

The workflow management software is capable of receiving input fromvarious different sources. Such sources include hard copy originalsinput via a scanner, native application formats such as the MicrosoftOffice™ Product suite and desktop publishing applications such as QuarkXpress™, manufactured by Quark. Inc., located in Denver, Colo. andFrameMaker™, manufactured by Adobe Systems, Inc., located in San Jose,Calif. Further, the software can accept Tagged Image File Format(“TIFF”) documents as well as documents already in a ready for printerformat such as PDF, PS or PCL. For hard copy input via a scanner, thesoftware supports industry standard scanner interfaces, TWAIN, asdefined by the TWAIN group located in Boulder Creek, Calif. and theImage and Scanner Interface Specification (“ISIS”) developed by PixelTranslations, Inc., located in San Jose, Calif. and also specified viaAmerican National Standards Institute specification ANSI/AIIM MS61-1996.Using these standard interfaces, the workflow management softwarereceives the scanned image data directly in the ready for printerformat. An exemplary scanner for use with the preferred workflowsoftware is the Imagedirect™ Scanner manufactured by Heidelberg Digital,L.L.C., located in Rochester, N.Y.

The preferred workflow management software also provides ODMA supportfor interfacing with document libraries. In addition, the provided ODMAsupport further extends the functionality of the document library tohandle management, storage and archiving of compound documents(described below) and tickets. This allows libraries of standardizedtickets to be created or facilitates updates and reprints of compounddocuments such as books.

Once documents are loaded into the workflow management software, toolsare provided to perform value added services and prepare the documentsfor production. Assembly is the process of arranging or rearrangingpages or adding or removing pages within a document. Assembly alsoincludes imposition where page positions are forced such as when thefirst page of a chapter is forced to the front side of the paper. Theworkflow management software provides cut, copy, paste and movefunctionality operable on 1 or more pages. This functionality ispreferably implemented via pull-down menus, pop up dialog boxes or onscreen option palates or buttons as provide by the graphic userinterface. In addition, the results of the respective operations areshown in a visual representation of the document in the centralizeddocument viewing window on the job preparation station 116 display.

The workflow management software further provides support for editingand annotating the document. Tools are provided for image object areaediting of a scanned page including erase inside and outside an area,cut, move, copy and paste area as well as pencil erase. Page editingtools are also provided for editing on one or more pages including areamasking and cropping. Tools are also provided for annotating documentsincluding alpha-numeric and graphic annotations. Exemplary annotationsinclude page numbering and bates stamping. The tools further provide forplacing images behind the document content, also known as watermarking.Annotation can be performed on any portion of one or more pages. Foralpha-numeric annotations, the font size and style are controllable. Inall cases, the results of the respective operations are shown in avisual representation of the document in the centralized documentviewing window on the job preparation station 116 display. In thepreferred embodiments, edits or annotations can be created ormanipulated by pointing to a visual representation of the documentand/or pages within the document and selecting, dragging, dropping orclicking the representation and/or selecting from a menu of options,where the selection of a particular option causes the associated edit orannotation to be applied to the specified portions of the document.Alternatively, a palate of options may be displayed from which the usermay choose an option to apply to selected portions of the document.Further, the interface may provide for a dialog box or other visualcontrol for inputting control values for the edit or annotation such asthe starting number of a bates range.

The workflow management software preferably provides further support forcompound documents which are documents comprised of one or more otherdocuments, such as books comprised of chapters or course packs comprisedof one or more excerpted sources. Compound documents take advantage ofthe object oriented nature of the workflow management software. Acompound document (“CD”) is a collection of one or more documents whichhave a particular ordering to them such as the chapters of a book. TheCD further contains an automatically generated assembled document whichis a single document containing the whole assembled CD. Tools areprovided which allow simple management of the documents of a CD,assembly and updating of the documents into the assembled document andselective document manipulation, such as selective printing, of thedocuments within the CD. Tools are also provided which can interpret thecontent of the documents within the CD and automatically generate atable of contents in the assembled document. A compound documentotherwise acts just like a document and can be edited, annotated, etc.and have tickets associated with it. Further, a compound document cancontain other compound documents such as in the case of a multi-volumebook. The individual documents and compound documents within thecompound document further retain their independent existence and can beedited or printed independently of the CD and shared with other CD'swith those edits being either automatically or manually updated into theassembled document within a particular CD. The workflow managementsoftware further displays a visual representation, such as with ahierarchical or tree structure, showing the compound document and anyassociated documents and tickets. In the preferred embodiments, compounddocuments can be created or manipulated by pointing to the visualrepresentations of one or more documents and/or a visual representationof a CD and selecting, dragging, dropping or clicking and/or selectingfrom a menu of options, where the selection of a particular optioncauses the associated feature to be applied to the selected documents orcompound documents. Alternatively, a palate of options may be displayedfrom which the user may choose an option to apply to selected compounddocuments. Further, the interface may provide for a dialog box or othervisual control for inputting control values for the compound documentssuch as margin values. For example, a user may select one or moredocuments and then choose a create CD option from a pull down menu. Theworkflow software then creates a visual representation of the CD on thedisplay showing the association of the CD to the selected documents.Alternatively, the user may first create a visual representation of a CDand then drag and drop the visual representations of one or moredocuments onto the CD visual representation. The workflow software thencreates the appropriate logical associations of the data for which thevisual representations represent.

The workflow management software is also preferably programmed with dataabout the different production output devices 122 in the print shop orotherwise available and their capabilities or other equipment, such asfinishing equipment, which can be utilized either automatically ormanually. The software provides tools which allow the operator to setpage features/formatting which are made possible by those specificcapabilities. Such page features include the plex of the document suchas duplex or simplex (double sided or single sided output), bindingoptions, such as stapling or hole punching and the availability andcontrol settings for handling tab stock or ordered media. The preferredembodiments preferably support all of the features of the Digimaster™line of high volume digital printers manufactured by Heidelberg Digital,L.L.C. located in Rochester, N.Y. In the preferred embodiments, thesepage features can be set by selecting or pointing to a visualrepresentation of one or more pages and selecting from a menu ofoptions, where the selection of a particular option causes theassociated feature to be applied to the selected pages. Alternatively, apalate of options may be displayed from which the user may choose anoption to apply to selected pages. Further, the interface may providefor a dialog box or other visual control for inputting control valuesfor the feature such as the type of tab stock. Setting page features forspecific pages encodes instructions to the production output device 122for implementing those features within the ready for printer formattedfile. When the production output device 122 receives the file forprinting, it will interpret those instructions to implement the desiredfeature. For page features which the current device 122 cannot handle,the device 122 can signal the operator that manual intervention isrequired and direct the operator through the appropriate steps toimplement the page feature and complete the job. This may includeinstructing the operator to remove partially finished documents andtransfer them to a binding machine for finishing or instructing theoperator to load a specific media type or tab stock into the device 122.

Tools are further provided by the workflow management software tosupport electronic versions of tickets for specifying production outputdevice instructions and parameters, as well as other finishing stepswhich may or may not be automated, which are global to the document,e.g. job level features or global document attributes. These includesuch attributes as the general media type or color to use and the methodof binding such as stapling. Tickets, also referred to as print ticketsor job tickets, can exist independently of documents or compounddocuments as was mentioned above. They are independently visuallyrepresented on the display by the workflow management software. Toolsare provided for manipulating tickets, such as saving, storing andassociating them with documents or compound documents in addition toediting their options. In the preferred embodiments, tickets can bemanipulated just like documents, using pointing, clicking, selecting,dragging and dropping. For example, a ticket can be associated with adocument by selecting the ticket and dragging and dropping it on aparticular document. The workflow management software then preferablyvisually displays the association by showing the ticket under thehierarchy of the document. Once associated, the options set by theticket will apply to the associated document or compound document. Theoptions represented by the ticket may be set by selecting the ticket tobring up a dialog box or pull down option menu which displays theavailable options and allows modification of the option values. Ticketsassociated with documents can be manipulated with the document. Forexample, saving a document save all of its associated tickets.Furthermore, the workflow management software provides the capabilitiesto create libraries of standardized tickets which can be used, forexample, to standardize procedures across multiple franchised printshops.

Finally, the workflow management software provides tools to send theprepared documents and any associated tickets to the production outputdevice for final production. In the preferred embodiments, documents orcompound documents can be sent to a production output device byselecting, clicking or dragging the visual representation of thedocument or compound document to a visual representation of the printserver or output device. Alternatively, the user may select anappropriate option from a pull-down menu, pop up dialog box or buttonpalate. The workflow management software supports standard interfacesand protocols to production output devices and print servers. Further,tools are provided for managing, selecting and monitoring multipleproduction output devices. These tools provide visual feed back of eachof the devices status to the user such as the current job queues.

Referring now to FIG. 3, there is shown a representation of a graphicuser interface display 400 according to the preferred embodiment. Thedisplay 400 includes viewer 306 and desktop 302 components. The desktopcomponent 302 includes menus 402 and button palates 404 which allow theuser to visually manage and manipulate the various objects describedabove. The menus 402 include a document menu 406, a ticket menu 408, abook menu 410, a job menu 412 and help menu 414. The button palate 404includes a new object button 416, an open button 418 and a libraryaccess button 420. The button palate 404 further includes a cut button422, a copy button 424, a paste button 426 and a print button 428. Itwill be appreciated that graphic user interfaces are well known in theart and there are many ways to implement a GUI and therefore, all formsof graphic input devices, including tear off menus, floating buttonpalates, dialog boxes, alternate keyboard command and mouse shortshortcuts and alternative physical input devices are all contemplated.

Further details of the graphic user interface display are provided inU.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/572,420.

As discussed above, many applications require the use of ordered stockor tabs inserted between various sections of a document. Although acustomer may know that a tab with certain information is desired betweencertain sections of a document, the customer usually does not know theparticular types or sets of tabs that will be used by the print shop.Therefore, the customer cannot specify the location of the informationto be printed on a tab. Moreover, there are situations where documentsare assembled from pre-created parts from a customer. For example, if acustomer wants to create user's manuals for machines that are made toorder the documentation department will receive a pick list frommanufacturing containing the list of document elements that will make upthe complete set of documentation. An example for this would be onecustomer who orders a printing system with just the finisher. Thiscustomer would receive only the print engine manual plus the finishermanual. A second customer orders a printing system with a stacker andbooklet maker in addition to the standard configuration. This customerwould therefore receive the documentation for these two parts as well asthe basic documentation. The sections of the documentation have aprinted tab to make it easier to find them in the binder. The tabscontain the name of the sub-system that is described in the followingchapter. Depending on the number of chapters in the folder the differentchapter pages will be printed on different pages of the tabs or otherordered media set. The tabs need to be aligned with the “order” of thetabs.

To allow for the flexibility of printing the tab contents on any one ofthe tab pages of an ordered tab set, the tab content in the presentinvention is not stored as a regular page of a document. According tothe present invention, a flag or marker that indicates that a pagecontains a tab is stored in memory. Additionally, the information thatwill be rendered on the tab inside the PDF page is stored in memory.Preferably, the user uses a graphic user interface at a station such asthe job preparation station 116 to input the marker or flag upfront inthe page or job creating stage. This arrangement enables the user tomove this page around in the document or even copy it to a differentdocument without loosing this information. Once the document containingsuch pages will be printed, the print output module, such as aproduction output device 122, will go through the PDF document and willproduce the tabs in the correct locations on the tab pages. Only theoutput module therefore has to know about the number of ordered media inone set.

It is also necessary to consider the available space on the tab whencreating the document. If at the time of the page creation it is assumedthat a set of 5 tabs will be used, but the actual printing is done on 9tabs the available space is almost cut in half. Private PDF page objectscan be used to store this kind of information on a page level. Thismakes it possible to move the page in one document or copy it to otherdocuments without having to keep track of which pages are printed ontabs.

According to the present invention the print shop operator firstassembles all input (electronic and hardcopy) into a single electronicdocument at the job preparation station 116. In an exemplary embodiment,the Adobe Acrobat software program is used to identify the location ofthe tab sheets using a utility that works with the same application usedto assemble the input (e.g. an Acrobat plug-in). This information isstored with the document. Using a utility that works with the sameapplication used to assemble the input (e.g. an Acrobat plug-in), thetab label information is entered independent from the tab order. Thiswill normally include the text and font. This information is stored withthe document. The user then invokes the Print Output Module andidentifies the specific stock to use for the tabs. This identifies theorder for the tabs. The document is then opened and read through thedocument starting with the first page through the last. For each tabsheet identified, the tab label information and tab location is takenbased on the tab order and the tab sheet is created as an additionalpage to the document. The amended document is then sent to the printingdevice as a proof set document. If, after examining the proof setdocument, the tab order needs to be changed, the printer invokes theprint output module and specifies the stock to be used for the tabs andthe printer continues through the above steps until the desired outputis obtained.

This configuration allows flexibility to align tab content at lastpossible time (i.e., print time). This preferred configuration alsoalleviates creator of the document content from needing to know whatordered tab set will be used at print time. This arrangement alsoeliminates processing overhead on the printer device to create pagecontent first. Also, the present invention obviates the need for theservices of a variable data process in the printing device, which couldhelp support the page creation on the printing device end, but adds costto the printing device and to the application creating the variable datato be sent to the printing device.

It is therefore intended that the foregoing detailed description beregarded as illustrative rather than limiting, and that it be understoodthat it is the following claims, including all equivalents, that areintended to define the spirit and scope of this invention.

1. A printing system for printing a document, said printing systemcomprising: a job preparation station, including processor and a memory,said job preparation station generating a flag stored in memoryindicating that a selected page in a document to be printed contains atab, and said job preparation station including an input device for auser to input the marker and information to be rendered on said tab; anda print output module that receives the flag and information to berendered on said tab and prints said information on said tab.